novelraw Chapter 160: It’s A Battle of Giants!
Chapter 160: It’s A Battle of Giants!
"AND KALLAN IS OUT!" the Announcer roared to the screaming stadium. "A devastating miscalculation! And now, Elementalist-D has been completely wiped from the Dungeon!"
Cheers and boos filled the platform.
"Ngh—No!!!" Kallan punched the ground in frustration.
"Ooh. Looks like the Lightning Mage isn’t too happy about that."
Kallan shoved himself up, his frustration undeniable for everyone to see. His eyes immediately found the disapproving glare of Professor Phiodor waiting for him.
Kallan froze, gulping in fear as the crowd cheered around him, returning their focus to the Dungeon.
"A devastating end for the Elementalists!" the Announcer’s voice boomed over the stadium speakers, mercifully drawing the crowd’s attention away from the disgraced squad. "But the fight for the Ignis Reliquary is far from over! Let’s return to the action inside the King Kong Kave!"
Inside the Dungeon, things had not gotten easier.
Everything had turned to chaos. Absolute, unfiltered chaos.
The cavern shook beneath the fury of the Kongs. Stone cracked and crumbled from the ceiling, raining down in jagged chunks that exploded against the floor.
The heat haze rising from the geothermal vents made the air shimmer and dance, distorting everything at the edges of vision until the monsters seemed to shift and multiply like nightmares given form.
One of the giant four-armed beasts lunged through the haze with a deafening roar, all four fists raised high above its head before crashing downward like meteors descending from some hellish sky.
"KASTO!" Lancet shouted, preparing his blade in case he had to use it.
"Don’t worry!" Kasto yelled back. "I see it!"
He ordered Metalhead into action.
The iron mecha surged forward on piston-driven legs, its massive frame crossing the distance between them in the span of a heartbeat. It shot out two of its arms, sending them like rockets to intercept the Kong.
BOOOOOM!
The impact was thunderous..
Metalhead dived in, smoke clearing. The rocket-hands reconnected with its arms and it lifted them just in time. The Kong, which had quickly regrouped, was about to smash downward.
But with a CLANG, Metalhead caught the slam head-on, its metal frame shrieking as the force of the blow drove its heels deep into the stone floor.
Cracks radiated outward from the point of impact like frozen lightning. Fire and debris blasted in every direction, forcing Vera to throw up her arm to shield her face from the heat.
But the Kong had two other arms.
It used them to punch Metalhead in its midsection—boom-boom-BOOM—each one hitting a causing dents on the steel ribs of the metal giant.
The mecha’s frame groaned under the assault. Hydraulic fluid sprayed from ruptured lines. Sparks erupted from joints that were never designed to withstand this much punishment.
Kasto glared in frustration. "I need help!"
"SHUNK!"
Help came surprisingly fast.
A cleaver tore into the beast’s side. It was from Min Tu’s first Skeleton—the one she’d suddenly called Wraith.
Lancet and the others were surprised that she’d given it a name, though a little less surprised that she’d been hiding the name up until this point.
Wraith sprinted up the Kong’s arm with impossible speed, its bony feet finding purchase on fur and muscle where no living creature could have climbed. Its cleaver flashed in the dim light of the cavern as it carved deep gashes into the monster’s shoulder, black blood spraying in thick arcs.
The Kong roared in pain and fury.
"Reaper!" Min Tu called. "Arise and help."
The second Skeleton Soldier looked like an Assassin. It slid between the beast’s legs and drove its twin daggers into the tendons behind its knee.
The monster’s leg buckled. Its entire body listed sideways, off-balance for the first time since the engagement began.
Then Min Tu called Specter, which from its looks was undeniably a Fire Mage mixed with a Knight. Specter appeared behind the Kong’s head in a burst of green wind magic, its cloak flaring dramatically as it buried a greatsword into the soft flesh at the base of the beast’s skull.
"Press it!" Min Tu barked coldly.
Her dark hair whipped violently around her pale face as she thrust her hand forward, fingers splayed like she was physically pushing her summons deeper into the assault.
The three undead warriors attacked like executioners—relentless, coordinated, moving with a synchronicity that could only come from absolute trust in their Summoner’s commands.
Wraith activated Berserker Strength, its bony arms swelling with ethereal muscle as it brought its cleaver down again and again and again, each strike faster and more devastating than the last.
Reaper tapped into Wind Mage Acceleration, becoming a blur of motion as it darted between the Kong’s legs, hamstringing first one leg, then the other, then circling around to target the monster’s hands.
Specter detonated bursts of Fire Magic directly into the wounds already opened by its companions, searing blackened craters into the beast’s flesh and sending gouts of cooked blood spraying across the cavern floor.
The Kong staggered backward under the barrage.
Its remaining functional arm—the one that hadn’t been shredded by Wraith’s cleaver—swung wildly, trying to swat the skeletal warriors away like insects.
It missed.
Every time.
"That’s it!" Lancet shouted, a savage grin spreading across his face. "Keep it off balance! Don’t let it breathe!"
But just when they thought they were finally getting the upper hand...
FWOOOOSSSHHHH!
A burning beam of crimson light ripped across the battlefield.
The King Kong’s eyes had opened—fully opened—and they blazed like miniature suns as twin energy beams swept through the cavern with casual, devastating ease.
Stone melted instantly wherever the beams touched, turning to liquid magma that pooled and hissed on the ground. The heat was so intense that Lancet could feel it from fifty feet away, could feel his skin tightening and his eyebrows crisping at the edges.
"DOWN!" Dane roared.
The Astral-Claw Ursine tore open a portal beneath Vera a split-second before the beam erased the space she had been standing on. She dropped through the swirling vortex of purple energy and emerged ten feet away, gasping as the heat washed over her in a wave.
"Thank you!" she managed, pressing her hand to her chest.
"Don’t thank me yet!" Dane shouted back.
They all turned their heads at where the King was sitting, their hearts beating wildly.
"It’s getting up," Kasto whispered.
"I’d hoped it’ll let us finish the two other Kongs first," Dane said. "Fuck."
The ground began to rumble unnaturally; a clear sign of what was about to happen. Rocks fell from the ceiling above, and then, the King Kong moved.
Everyone froze where they were, as if the presence of the beast had constricted their movement.
They watched it free itself from its throne of bones. And suddenly—horrifyingly, terrifyingly—the difference between it and the other Kongs became unmistakably clear.
"Lancet," Kasto called his friend with a whisper. "Now would be a really good time to call one of your Summons."
Min Tu looked at Lancet. "How does your Grace feel?"
Lancet narrowed his eyes, sinking into his conscience and Soul Core to interact with his magical system. "Not good," he told her when he was done.
Min Tu sighed. "We’re going to have to do it on our own then."
The King Kong drew its giant arms backwards and let out a thunderous roar. The power from that roar was unbelievable.
Stones were crushed, superheated air blasted against their faces, dust stung their eyes. When silence returned to the cavern, Lancet and the rest of the team lowered their hands to see what would happen.
To their utter dismay, the King Kong launched itself off the ground.
It crossed half the chamber in that singular leap, its massive body compressing and exploding outward with a speed that seemed physically impossible for something its size. The cavern exploded beneath its landing, stone shattering in a radial pattern that sent chunks of debris flying like shrapnel.
"Overdrive!" Kasto called his second mech. "Come forth now!"
A light exploded in front of the team and from its glow, a giant metallic Summon appeared.
Overdrive was at least three feet taller than Metalhead, with a frame that was sleeker and more angular—all sharp edges and polished dark alloy that seemed to drink in the light around it.
Glowing orange conduits ran along its arms and spine. They were what helped it suck the ambient energy from its surroundings to create energy. Twin shoulder-mounted launchers sat tucked behind articulated armor plates, ready to unfold and fire at a moment’s notice, while its hands crackled with barely contained power, each fingertip capable of converting solid stone into raw explosive force.
Unlike Metalhead’s brute-force design, Overdrive looked hungry, like it was always searching for the next thing to consume and weaponize.
Regardless of the mecha’s sudden appearance, the King Kong wasn’t letting up. It lunged still, its upper right fist caught Overdrive across the chest.
The mecha folded around the impact like paper. Its metal frame crumpled inward, sparks and hydraulic fluid spraying from the wound as it was launched backward through two stone pillars. The pillars shattered on impact, collapsing into rubble that buried the mecha’s legs.
The Kong’s lower pair of arms smashed downward immediately after, targeting the space where Kasto had been standing.
Kasto dove aside.
The stone where he’d been standing cratered, the impact sending shockwaves through the ground that knocked everyone off balance.
"KASTO!" Vera cried, her voice high with panic.
"I’m alive!" he yelled back, scrambling to his feet.
Barely.
Overdrive dragged itself from the rubble, armor cracked and weeping glowing fluid from a dozen different wounds. Its systems were flickering—Lancet could see the energy readouts fluctuating wildly through his tactical display—but somehow, impossibly, it was still functional.
The King Kong opened its jaws. Overdrive cracked its neck and fists.
"What do we have here, ladies and gentlemen?!" The announcer exclaimed excitedly. "It’s a battle of giants!"